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"My last mission, I caught a TIE with a fantastic shot. I'd slowed down to blast a TIE Bomber, and this TIE fighter comes up behind me too fast. I caught him coming on the rear sensor, and just pushed my nose down a little. Then, as he came over me, I raised the nose and squirted a laser blast. He went nova on one hit. It was a beautiful deflection."

When the other pilots became aware that Naeco was attracted to Jan-lo, several of them devised a scheme to get their revenge for his numerous practical jokes. Jan-lo indicated that she was interested in Naeco and told him to meet her in a storage area of the ship's Quarren section. Following Farlander's advice not to waste any time, Naeco walked into the dark room, straight over to who he thought was Jan-lo and kissed her, only to discover when the others turned the lights on that he was kissing a Quarren member of the kitchen staff. Though he laughed the incident off, Naeco cut down on the practical jokes afterward. Jan-lo was later injured during an attack on the Imperial-class Star DestroyerIntrepid, and Naeco was among the pilots who visited her while she underwent bacta therapy.[3]

Some time later, Naeco, Farlander and Raider witnessed the arrival of the Mon Calamariprivateer and traderTuz aboard the Independence when he made a delivery of stolen Imperial equipment. Curious about the visitor, Naeco invited Tuz and his entourage to join the Rebels for a drink in the pilots' lounge. When Raider voiced his opinion of Tuz's business practices, one of the pirate's Gamorreanbodyguards attacked the pilot. As Naeco and Farlander moved to help their friend, Tuz brought a halt to the altercation and admonished his bodyguard's behavior before explaining that he was working for the Alliance as part of an arrangement with the Independence's commanding officer, AdmiralGial Ackbar. On another occasion, Naeco suggested taking Flight CadetBreth Gart to Lucky Lower 13, a bar aboard the Independence, in an effort to help him to integrate with his wingmates. The pilots soon attracted two female crew members, one of whom was clearly interested in Gart. When the young pilot decided to follow Farlander's lead in retiring for the night, the women stayed in the company of Naeco and Raider.[3]

The Empire soon completed construction of the Death Star and dispatched it to destroy the Alliance's base on Yavin 4.[2] The Independence traveled to the Yavin system to assist in the preparations for the imminent attack and Naeco was one of several pilots transferred to Yavin Base upon arrival to bolster its starfighter squadrons.[1][3] The stolen Death Star plans revealed a weakness in the battlestation: a small thermal exhaust port leading to the main reactor core. With the Death Star's defenses geared towards defending the station from a large-scale attack, the Rebels believed it would be possible for their starfighters to navigate down a narrow trench on the Death Star's surface, and fire proton torpedoes into the exhaust port, triggering a chain reaction that would destroy the station.[2] Naeco was assigned an X-wing as part of Red Squadron during the Battle of Yavin, one of two squadrons responsible for attacking the exhaust port. Flying with the call signRed Twelve,[1] Naeco acted as wingmate to Red LeaderGarven Dreis.[6]

Following a briefing by GeneralJan Dodonna, the Rebel pilots intercepted the Death Star as it prepared to use its superlaser against Yavin 4. Dreis led Red Squadron in strafing runs against the battlestation's surface while three of Gold Squadron'sBTL Y-wing starfighters made an unsuccessful run on the exhaust port, resulting in the deaths of all three pilots. Red Squadron had already sustained losses, but Dreis regrouped the remaining fighters for an attack on the exhaust port. On Dodonna's instructions to split his group to allow two attempts, Dreis ordered Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter and Luke Skywalker to wait while he led Naeco and Theron Nett in Red Ten into the trench. The three Rebels initially came under heavy turbolaser fire, but when the firing stopped, Dreis ordered his wingmates to watch for enemy fighters. Skywalker soon warned that a pair of TIE fighters, led by the Dark Lord of the SithDarth Vader'sTIE Advanced x1, was entering the trench behind them. Closing on the exhaust port, Dreis ordered Naeco and Nett to hold off the approaching TIEs while he made his shot, but the Sith Lord soon closed the distance and fired on Naeco's X-wing,[2] causing it to explode and crash into the wall of the trench,[7] killing the pilot.[1] After Dreis and Nett were also killed by Vader's group, the three remaining members of Red Squadron attempted a trench run, with Skywalker finally succeeding in destroying the Death Star.[2]

Naeco was a skilled pilot and gunner. Although he could sometimes be reckless in combat, he was admired by his wingmates for his accurate deflection shooting[3] and served as a mentor to younger pilots.[1] He was popular with those with whom he worked, despite his habit for carrying out practical jokes at their expense. Examples of Naeco's jokes include tampering with his comrades' food in order to make their urine glow in the dark and playing a seductive female voice over the comlink while they engaged in simulated combat practice. When members of Red Squadron used his attraction to Sunnar Jan-lo to turn the tables on him, he reacted with good humor but subsequently reduced the frequency of his jokes.[3]

"When Red 10 gets shot down, the pilot we see die is someone else – a previously unseen male pilot with a helmet that looks like Janson's in The Empire Strikes Back. That pilot, we decided, should be Red 12."

While writing The Essential Guide to Warfare Naeco was one of several characters considered as the identity of Red Twelve, along with Fin Danglot from Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope (1989), Milar Travis from Star Wars Droids 8: Star Wars According to the Droids, Book III (1987), Talos Merkin from Star Wars Journal: Captive to Evil (1998) and Ernek Marskan from X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide. Travis was Fry's preferred option, due to his desire to include a female pilot among Red Squadron. However, in the film, when Theron Nett's starfighter is shot down moments after Red Twelve's, the pilot who is seen dying is not Nett. As a result, Fry and Leland Chee, manager of the Holocron continuity database, decided that this pilot should be Red Twelve, making the character male. Naeco was chosen from the remaining options while Travis and Danglot were both mentioned in Naeco's biography. Naeco's first name, which was never used in X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide, was also revealed in The Essential Guide to Warfare as Puck, based on a suggestion by Chee.[9]

Before The Essential Guide to Warfare identified Red Twelve as Naeco, John Chapman, who portrayed an unidentified Rebel pilot in A New Hope, unofficially identified his character as Red Twelve, a Rebel pilot named Gil 'Drifter' Viray.[10]